New Employee
by T.j.98
Summary: After escaping from Aperture, Chell gets offered a job from a man in a suit. Prequel to "Work To Be Done". One shot.


In a field of tall dry grass, the last human to ever leave Aparture Laboratories resting. She had managed to trek several miles through the grass in just a few hours, but sooner or later anyone will run out of energy. She looked behind her, and saw that she had gotten far enough from Aparture that she could no longer see it. While this was good, she knew that in an hour she would need to keep pressing forward if she did not want to die of starvation in a field.

Still, before she could sleep she saw a green light in the grass not far in front of her. She entered a crouched position, pointing her portal gun (which her captor had neglected to confiscate from her) at whatever threat was present. Her (former) captor had warned her not to point the portal gun at herself, so she guessed that it could do damage to any living thing that it hit. Still, there is the possibility that whatever made the flash of green light was not a living thing.

After a few seconds, the cause of the flash of light walked into view. It was a man in a suit, holding a briefcase in his right hand. His voice was eerily calm.

"Hello, I am sure you are wondering what I am doing here. I have come here because your ability to survive against all odds has not gone unnoticed. It is because of this that my ... employers have requested I offer you a job. They believe your potential is nearly limitless, and I will be the first I admit I agree with them. If you are interested, simply step into this portal and I will take that as a yes. You will be allowed to keep your equipment, as I think you earned it."

As he said that, a green ball of light appeared next to him. He called it a portal, but Chell was not so sure. She had seen and created portals before, probably thousands of times over the years, but she had never seen one which looked like this.

He continued, "I am currently not at liberty to divulge the details of this job, but it can tell you that if you accept than you can expect to be fully healed. While you were escaping, you encountered substances which have a negative affect on the human body."

When he said this, Chell thought back to the recordings she heard while in the bottom levels of Aperture.

_**In case you got covered in that repulsion gel, here's some advice the lab boys gave me: DO NOT get covered in the repulsion gel. We haven't entirely nailed down what element it is yet, but I'll tell you this: It's a lively one, and it does NOT like the human skeleton.**_

_**And guess what? Ground up moon rocks are pure poison. I am deathly ill. Still, it turns out they're a great portal conductor.**_

The man in the suit continued, "If you do not accept, I will leave you here to face a battle you can not possibly win. You will begin to cough up blood, than you will get very sick, than you will die. It's a bit of an anticlimax after what you just survived. Anyway, the choice is yours."

Chell weighed mentally as to whether or not to accept this stranger's offer. On one hand, she listened to the recordings of a dying man who was poisoned by materials she herself went in contact with. Hell, she probably got covered in the blue repulsion gel and the white portal conductor gel multiple times. Chell is well aware that if she does not get help soon that she will suffer the same fate of Cave Johnson.

On the other hand, Chell had just recently escaped from one prison. Now someone was potentially asking her to enter another one, one from which she might not ever be able to escape from.

Essentially, it came down to survival. She had a desire to live; that is me sole reason why she did not kill herself when the first opportunity presented itself. She wanted to lives and nothing would stop her. If this person really was another captor, than she could find a way to escape.

Hesitantly, Chell walked towards the green ball of light.

It teleported her into darkness, and just as the green light burned out she heard the man in the suit say some parting words.

"Wisely chosen. See you on the other side."


End file.
